Few
Americans are aware that their personal and financial information is
being given to foreign nations by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service
in the name of "getting Americans to pay their fair share."
And the globalists in the U.S. government are happy to share Americans'
confidential information.

With
trillions of dollars in cross-border financial activity, U.S.
tax authorities and others around the world exchange information
with each other to administer and enforce compliance with the tax laws
of their respective countries. In many cases, these information exchanges
are similar to that which is exchanged in criminal cases.

Sadly,
in dealing with taxpayers’ information, no warrants are necessary
and the process disregards the U.S. system of jurisprudence that recognizes
the time-honored "innocent until proven guilty."

Recently
the U.S. Congress requested its investigative arm, the Government
Accountability Office, to identify and describe all income tax treaties
and other such agreements between the United States and other countries
as well as describe the volume of exchange activity, types of information
exchanged between the United States and its treaty partners, and request
processing times.

In
addition, the GAO was asked to identify opportunities to improve the
effectiveness of current U.S.
information exchange processes and procedures. GAO analyzed the
international agreement documents, IRS data on information exchanges,
and analysts interviewed program officials and the users of the exchanged
information.

Treaties
and other agreements authorizing information exchange provide tax authorities
in the United States and abroad with a useful tax law enforcement tool.
As of April 30, 2011, the United States had such agreements in force
with 90
foreign jurisdictions, according to the GAO analysis.

While
such information sharing can be rationalized when dealing with transnational
organized crime gangs, drug cartels and terrorist groups, many who discover
this information-sharing are suspicious when it relates to law-abiding
citizens who pay the taxes that pay the salaries of IRS managers and
enforcers.

IRS-international
agreements have many similar features, but the bounds within which information
can be exchanged are unique to the legal and administrative arrangements
agreed to by the United States and each partner.

Between
2006 and 2010, 5,111 requests for information to or from the United
States and 75 foreign jurisdictions were completed; 4,217 were incoming
requests for information such as tax returns or corporate records and
894 were outgoing requests from the United States.

IRS's
enforcement presence also relies on several other methods to obtain
relevant information, including a mechanism which yields about 2.1 million
records annually from treaty partners. GAO estimates that most requests
close about 50 to 200 days after being opened, but some take much longer.
The time it takes to close requests can be influenced by factors such
as the complexity of the requested information and the legal system
of the treaty partner.

GAO
analysis of IRS data shows that the United States takes more time to
close incoming requests for some groups of countries than others. Although
IRS collects data on exchanges between the United States and its treaty
partners, the agency does not consistently collect or analyze performance
information, such as the type of information requested, whether the
information was collected successfully, or feedback from staff making
the requests about the usefulness of the information or their views
on the process for obtaining it.

According
to the GAO analysis, collecting this taxpayer information could help
program managers assess how well the IRS is managing the information
exchange process, and whether changes to administrative processes and
procedures could improve the exchange of information between the United
States and its treaty partners.

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The
GAO recommended to Congress that the Commissioner of Internal Revenue
determine the key types of performance information that exchange program
managers could use to ensure the program is working as well as possible.

Specifically,
the Commissioner should require the collection of consistent and accurate
data on specific tax information exchange cases and feedback from program
users on a routine basis as part of regular program operations.